Nathaniel Wood moves up to featherweight, meets Charles Rosa at UFC London
Nathaniel Wood will be getting the hometown fight in London.
Wood was supposed to fight at UFC London back in March but his opponent, Vince Morales fell ill and the fight was called off on fight week. Since then, the Brit announced he would be moving up to featherweight and he now has his 145lbs debut booked as he will face Charles Rosa at UFC London on July 23 at the 02 Arena. Rosa’s management, Iridium confirmed the news on social media after a report from Al Zullino.
Nathaniel Wood (17-5) has not fought since UFC 254 in October of 2020 when he dropped a decision to Casey Kenney. Prior to that, he beat John Castenada by decision to return to the win column after losing by TKO to John Dodson. The Brit started out his UFC career going 3-0 with three submission wins over Johnny Eduardo, Andre Ewell, and Jose Quinonez. Before signing with the UFC, Wood was the former Cage Warriors bantamweight champion and defended it twice. This will also be the first time he fights at featherweight in his career.
Charles Rosa (14-7) is on a two-fight losing streak as he has lost back-to-back decision losses to TJ Brown and Damon Jackson. Before the back-to-back setbacks, he has alternated wins and losses for 10 straight fights. During that time, he has beaten the likes of Manny Bermudez, Kyle Bochniak, and Kevin Aguilar while some of the losses were to Yair Rodriguez, Bryce Mitchell, and Shane Burgos among others.
With the addition of Wood-Rosa, UFC London is now as follows:
- Curtis Blaydes vs. Tom Aspinall
- Jack Hermansson vs. Darren Till
- Alexander Gustafsson vs. Nikita Krylov
- Charles Johnson vs. Muhammad Mokaev
- Mandy Bohm vs. Victoria Leonardo
- Paul Craig vs. Volkan Oezdemir
- Marc Diakiese vs. Damir Hadzovic
- Jordan Leavitt vs. Paddy Pimblett
- Jai Herbert vs. Kyle Nelson
- Charles Rosa vs. Nathaniel Wood
